Performing a controlled emergency landing of an aircraft in water is known as “ditching”. Various governmental agencies provide regulations as to how an aircraft will perform immediately after ditching. For instance, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides regulations regarding the float time and trim of a ditched aircraft with the goal of allowing the passengers to exit the aircraft within 90 seconds. See, for example, FAA Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) 25.803
One problem experienced by passengers attempting to exit a ditched aircraft is caused by the trim or attitude of the aircraft as it floats in the water. In some configurations or loadings, the aircraft may float in an orientation that hinders the safe exit of the aircraft. For instance, the aircraft may float in a more tail-down attitude, which may place the waterline on the fuselage across the rear emergency doors. In a tail-down attitude, water at the rear emergency doors would prevent those doors for being used to exit the aircraft and increase the amount of time necessary for the passengers to exit. However, due to the short amount of time allotted for exiting the aircraft in such situations, little time exists to correct this problem.
In view of the above discussion, problems remain for controlling the attitude of an aircraft that has been ditched.